Second baseman Rickie Weeks and the Milwaukee Brewers have agreed to a $38.5 million, four-year contract that contains a 2015 option which could increase the value to $50 million, a person familiar with negotiations tells The Associated Press.

How many of these years were free agent years?

Johnny Footstool

02-16-2011, 02:17 PM

Seems like they locked him up at a decent rate through his prime years. I'm a fan of deals like this, even if they just buy out arbitration.

Quatitos

02-16-2011, 02:19 PM

How many of these years were free agent years?

This was his last arbitration year, so it bought out 3 (or 4 with option or whatever that fifth year is).

Rosenthal tweeted that the Brewers can "get out" of the 5th year if he isn't a regular in 2013 and 2014, so I assumed it has a games played clause.

And he was set to be a free agent after this year.

RedsManRick

02-16-2011, 02:56 PM

Wowza. That is some big-time dough for Rickie Weeks. So is he worth that much or not?

320

Basically depends on the degree to which you think 2010 is a better reflection of his true talent than 2009.

He was a bit hit lucky last year, which boosted his rate stats some. But even if you regress his BABIP, everything else looks legit. Really, 2010 was basically the same season as 2007 but with more batted ball luck, slightly better defense and a full season's worth of plate appearances.

I see him as a ~4 win player on average over the next 5 years, which would mean the Brewers got a pretty darn good deal. That said, we're talking about a guy who had never made it through a full season healthy until last year. I'd be much more worried about that than I would about what he can do on the field when healthy.

lollipopcurve

02-16-2011, 03:05 PM

Rickey can hit. He can't field much, but he can hit.

hebroncougar

02-16-2011, 04:56 PM

Wow.......I heard speculation this morning of a 4 year $28 million. This is way over that. With no real position he's good at, and the fact that he's beyond injury prone, I'm not sure this was a wise investment at all.

The deal is pretty similar to the extension we gave Phillips originally. Except Phillips had more than 1 arb year to buy out. As far as the 11 million salary once Phillips hit FA and the 12 million dollar option, I'd say its pretty comparable.